jeremy so far has been the most avoidant pov in the world because what the hell are his issues? he's not even looking directly at them he's looking around them or focusing on everyone else's issues so he doesn't acknowledge his own
like with neil there was immediate acknowledgement with the memory of his mother's burning corpse but jeremy? nothing. is it parental issues? sibling issues? self issues? why was he in therapy? did he do something? did something happen to him? who knows? he does but he's not gonna look at all that when he can look at jean instead
jeremy is neil's 'i'm fine' personified times ten thousand he's so fine he doesn't even need to say it
cannot stop thinking about how, from jean’s pov, neil is a Creature. an insane little man. jean expresses physical attraction or at least physical appreciation towards many of the characters in this book, and despite the foxes’ insistence that neil is good looking, to jean neil is always just… a weird and slightly unsettling presence. a strange and arrogant creature with no leash on him. an uncanny force of nature.
Seeing neil from an outside pov actually 100% makes it clear why andrew was as intrigued as he was. Because we as readers could see how stressed neil was 24/7 but seeing him from jean’s perspective really helps to see how absolutely off the rails he seems if you don’t have the insider understanding of his character
happy opening day to old people who keep score in the stands, field pigeons who harrass outfielders during play, snack shack workers, ticket takers, lesbians on game day dates, girls who play on Little League teams, cotton candy hawkers, whoever repairs and replaces the lightbulbs in stadium lights, radio board operators, shitty bisexual stadium DJs, non-American players, transgender fans of all kinds, field maintenance workers who trip pulling the tarp up, abysmal first pitch throwers, Renel Brooks-Moon, people who take the bus, train, or ferry to games, my boyfriend, first time fans, lifelong fans, diva pitchers, diva shortstops, guys who sell hotdogs and merch on the sidewalk after games, minor leaguers, college softball players who are better than all baseball players but never get paid for their contributions to the sport, seagulls who shit on people and then take their french fries, umpires who get silly with it calling strikes, camera operators, stadium janitors, and you.
every so often i think about sebastian vettel going from the most hated driver -by the fans- to a driver who got such a massive goodbye, unseen to any other driver retirement in the modern era. the thousands of dedications from thousands of different media, the journalists speaking of his kindness, the mechanics talking about his dedication and his love to the sport, the teams talking about the end of the year gifts he'd made for all of them, without fault, otmar szafnauer and the bread seb made for him the first time they met. people like ruth buscombe who spoke about him in the highest terms (my f1 bradley cooper!), fernando alonso that was arguably the one with the most rights to feel wronged by seb (won everything in the years he was trying to win with ferrari) dedicated an entire helmet to him, pierre gasly, charles leclerc and carlos sainz spoke about him leaving such a mark in their personal careers even when they weren't in f1, pierre and the extremely long talk on the phone, carlos and his mark in milton keynes, charles and the letter for his simulator work in 2017, the shirts for their little track run in abu dhabi, the speeches and the memorabilia red bull and ferrari gave him, lewis hamilton refusing to accept he's leaving, talking about seb making him feel a little less lonely in f1, the way most fans keep bringing seb sings to suzuka and singapore, the excitement whenever he does the smallest thing that may indicate a return to f1. i think no other driver has been so loved in their farewell as seb was, i don't think any other driver will be as missed as he is.